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Environmental News

MPR News is your source for environment news from Minnesota and across the country.

Getting to Green: Minnesota’s energy future

Getting to Green is an MPR News series that shares stories about Minnesota’s clean energy transition, including what needs to be done to get there.

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Climate Cast

Listen to Climate Cast, the MPR News podcast all about our changing climate and its impact in Minnesota and worldwide.

Wisconsin wolf hunt overshoots quota, worrying conservationists

Wisconsin wolf hunt overshoots quota, worrying conservationists

After gray wolves were removed from the federal endangered species list, hunters in Wisconsin killed nearly twice the allowed quota of gray wolves.

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Research: Scanning wastewater could offer advance warning of COVID — or other viruses

Research: Scanning wastewater could offer advance warning of COVID — or other viruses

A year into the COVID-19 pandemic, Minnesota researchers say their effort to learn whether surveying a community’s sewage could help detect the prevalence of COVID-19 — and possibly predict surges of the virus — appears promising.
by Kirsti Marohn

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Study finds wildfire smoke more harmful to humans than pollution from cars

Study finds wildfire smoke more harmful to humans than pollution from cars

In Southern California, pollutants from wildfire smoke caused up to a 10 percent increase in hospital admissions. Researchers say there's a need for better air monitoring and public health programs.
by Nathan Rott

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Climate change threatens winter recreation

Climate change threatens winter recreation

It’s cross-country skiing season and Minnesotan Jessie Diggins is on a roll. But the snow conditions she was brought up on are rapidly changing.
by Paul Huttner

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30 years later, echoes of largest inland oil spill remain in Line 3 fight

30 years later, echoes of largest inland oil spill remain in Line 3 fight

About 50 people gathered at the Prairie River near the site of a crude oil spill in Grand Rapids Wednesday. Thirty years ago, on March 3, 1991, the Line 3 oil pipeline ruptured at the site, spilling 1.7 million gallons of crude oil into a wetland and onto the frozen Prairie River. It's still the largest inland oil spill in U.S. history.
by Dan Kraker and Kirsti Marohn

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How the military helped bring back the red-cockaded woodpecker

How the military helped bring back the red-cockaded woodpecker

The U.S. military and conservation groups forged an unusual alliance to help save the red-cockaded woodpecker, but a Trump-era move to take it off the endangered list could threaten the bird.
by Jay Price

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Common insecticide widespread in Minnesota deer herd

Common insecticide widespread in Minnesota deer herd

Researchers have found a commonly used insecticide in two thirds of the white tailed deer spleens collected from across Minnesota. It’s still unclear what the health effects on deer in the wild might be.
by Dan Gunderson

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How fast are oceans rising? The answer may be in century-old shipping logs

How fast are oceans rising? The answer may be in century-old shipping logs

A century ago, the shipping industry recorded the daily ebb and flow of tides. Now, those records are becoming crucial for forecasting how fast sea levels are rising in a warming climate.
by Lauren Sommer

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It's not just Texas: The entire energy grid needs an upgrade for extreme weather

It's not just Texas: The entire energy grid needs an upgrade for extreme weather

The U.S. power grid was designed for technology and weather that existed in the 1950s, '60s and '70s, says energy consultant Alison Silverstein. Now, she says, it needs to be updated for a future that includes climate change.
by Jeff Brady

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